Newhart

We're in agreement with Mr. Hall's (TV Times, June 26) opinion that the older situation comedies are far superior to most of the current ones. We recently went to cable and thoroughly enjoy seeing again the older "Mary Tyler Moore," "Bob Newhart" and "Dick Van Dyke" shows. I had forgotten how genuinely funny they are. Helen King, Los Angeles

Emmy Award-winning actress Marcia Wallace, who voiced the "Simpsons" role of Edna Krabappel and played wisecracking receptionist Carol Kester on the classic sitcom "The Bob Newhart Show," has died at the age of 70. Wallace died at home in Los Angeles Friday night, surrounded by friends and family, said her son, Michael Hawley. She had been in failing health for the last several months and died of complications due to pneumonia, Hawley said. Wallace, who had spoken widely about her battles with breast cancer, had surgery for it in March, after which she was considered clear of the disease, her son said.

Why is it that when the networks get their programming right, they have to change it? Please put "Kate & Allie" and "Newhart" back to 9 and 9:30 p.m., respectively, on Mondays (my unwind and enjoy television time). Janet Falk, Camarillo

This post has been updated. See below for details. Marcia Wallace, who played Bart's fourth-grade teacher Edna Krabappel on Fox's animated comedy "The Simpsons" and Bob Newhart's wisecracking receptionist Carol Kester on the classic 1972-78 CBS sitcom "The Bob Newhart Show," has died at the age of 70. Wallace died at home in Los Angeles Friday night, surrounded by friends and family. Contrary to earlier reports that she died of complications from breast cancer, her son, Michael Hawley, told the Times Saturday afternoon that she had been in failing health for the last several months and died due to complications of pneumonia.

CBS axed its new Monday-night comedy "The People Next Door" Thursday, marking the first cancellation of the new season. The low-rated sitcom was chock-full of special effects, revolving around a cartoonist who could make anything in his vivid imagination come to life. " 'The People Next Door,' given the time to develop its audience, would have been a success," said David Salzman, president of Lorimar, which produced the show. "But CBS needs a quick fix." The show, which premiered Sept.

CBS-TV will eliminate two of its movie nights, the 4-year-old "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" and a batch of first-year series to make room for eight hours of new prime-time programming for the fall season, the No. 2-rated network said Thursday. The cancellation of two of its three two-hour movie blocks along with the weekly series means CBS will be replacing a whopping 36% of its schedule with new programming as it bids to end NBC's two-year prime-time ratings reign.

I don't know what the consensus is, but the "Newhart" finale left me feeling a trifle sick. We all know TV isn't "real life." Why did the show's producers find it necessary to rub our noses in it by turning old friends into figments of a dream? Mark Richards, Sun Valley

Newhart Middle School will host an orientation this morning from 9 to 11 a.m. for new students and their parents. "We hope this wall ease the first-day-of-school jitters and pressure for those students who may not be familiar with our campus," Principal Jim Henderson said. Sponsored by the Newhart Middle School PTA, the orientation will allow new students to become familiar with such facilities as the gym, multipurpose room, library and cafeteria.

One of America's revered funnymen, Bob Newhart, has listed his estate in Bel-Air for sale at $15.5 million. The French country-style home, designed by Wallace Neff and built in 1941, is two stories with a basement and an attic. There are five fireplaces, five bedrooms, seven bathrooms and 9,169 square feet of living space. Offices sit above the garage. The 1.37 acres of grounds include a lagoon-style swimming pool, mature trees and lawn. A star architect to celebrities Newhart, 83, entertained a national audience with his sitcoms “The Bob Newhart Show” (1972-78)

Clint Eastwood's awkward argument with an invisible President Obama in an empty chair at Thursday's Republican National Convention isn't something that sprang out of the movie legend's imagination. As many people have already pointed out, Eastwood was channeling the 1960s era stand-up comedy of Morey Amsterdam and Bob Newhart. As Time magazine's Mark Halperin explained on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday, "I think everyone has missed that E astwood's performance is very closely based on a M orey Amsterdam performance from dinner theater in Bayonne.

"I heard that Clint Eastwood is channeling me at the RNC. My lawyers and I are drafting our lawsuit.” @bobnewhart During Thursday's telecast of the Republican National Convention, legendary comedian Bob Newhart, 82, got a call from his daughter Jennifer, who runs his Twitter account, @bobnewhart. His account was going through the roof during Eastwood's rambling “stand-up” routine, during in which he pretended to have a conversation with an imaginary President Obama sitting in a chair next to him. INTERACTIVE: Republican National Convention speeches The routine called to mind Newhart's classic comedy bits where he would pretend to be talking on the phone with someone who was often in a panic, like a young security guard seeking help from his boss when King Kong starts climbing the Empire State building.

Update: A gated Bel-Air estate built in 1932 and designed by architect Gerard Colcord has sold for $10.5 million, the Multiple Listing Service shows. The Horton House, named for its original owners, has been owned by entertainment industry personalities including former Univision Chairman and Chief Executive Jerry Perenchio, actor Bob Newhart and soap star Deidre Hall, according to "Colcord Home" by Bret Parsons. The restored French farmhouse-style home has eight bedrooms, 10 1/2 bathrooms and about 10,000 square feet of living space.

More often than not, people live lives of quiet desperation in jobs they hate. But not Bob Newhart. No sooner had he become an accountant than he knew he had to get out. "I just made the decision that I was going to try comedy, and if didn't work, then I knew it didn't work," he says. "Then I would go back and do whatever. But at least I wouldn't torture myself the rest of my life, wondering whatever would have happened. . . ." He didn't make the transformation overnight.

It was in the cafeteria of a Seattle Hilton that Bob Newhart got the inspiration for his second sitcom, the follow-up to "The Bob Newhart Show." Hotel guests, he observed, are much like the patients of psychologist Robert Hartley on that 1970s small-screen classic -- not to be argued with, no matter how nonsensical. As Newhart put it in a recent phone conversation, "I function well with a bunch of crazies around me that I can react to."

Bob Newhart, whose long-running "Newhart" series comes to an end this season, will star in his third TV series for CBS in the 1991-92 season, the network said Friday. "Newhart," which premiered in 1982 and starred Newhart as the owner of a New England inn, will air its last original episode May 21. Previously, Newhart starred in the 1972-78 series "The Bob Newhart Show" as a Chicago psychologist. No premise has been set for the new show, which will be produced by Arthur Price Productions.

Comedian Bob Newhart will preside as grand marshal at the 102nd Tournament of Roses Parade, which will carry the theme of "Fun 'N' Games." Newhart, 61, a stand-up comedian in the 1960s who later starred in two television series, was named today at the Tournament House in Pasadena. Newhart noted that he is only the seventh humorist selected to head the 5 1/2-mile New Year's Day parade in Pasadena.

Suzanne Pleshette, the dark-haired, smoky-voiced actress who played Bob Newhart's confident and sexy wife, Emily Hartley, for six years on the popular 1970s sitcom "The Bob Newhart Show," has died. She was 70. The widow of comic actor Tom Poston, Pleshette died of respiratory failure Saturday evening at her Los Angeles home, Robert Finkelstein, an entertainment lawyer and family friend, told the Associated Press. Pleshette underwent chemotherapy in 2006 for lung cancer.